Career firsts against the Nighthawks
Utah State men’s basketball (9-1) extended its current win streak to eight games tonight after an 84-53 win against the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks (4-4) this evening at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. Darius Brown II recorded a career-high 6 steals.
The Aggies started forward Great Osobor, guard Ian Martinez, guard Darius Brown, guard Mason Falslev and center Isaac Johnson.
Starting hot again, Falslev kicked off the scoring. The Aggies would go on a 19-2 run within the first 5 minutes of the game.
Falslev linked with Osobor on an emphatic alley-oop dunk at the 17:10 mark that got the local crowd into the game.
The Nighthawks made some adjustments and put together a 14-4 run over the next six minutes after the Aggies subbed out their starters.
Falslev had his hands full as he was the target of both Brown and Martinez on two alley-oop dunks in rapid succession.
The first half ended 46-29 in favor of the Aggies. USU shot 65% from the field and 40% from 3.
First-half stats for USU:
FT: 6-7
3Pt: 2-5
Steals: 9
TO: 8
Just over a minute into the second half, Osobor knocked down his first three-pointer of his college career.
“He’s a good shooter,” head coach Danny Sprinkle said.”He shot a lot growing up and it’s just getting him back and confident.”
At the 6:30 mark, Brown found Falslev for another dunk off of a throw-in after a Nighthawk turnover.
Brown would continue his offensive consistency recording 11 assists and only two turnovers, and recording a career-high 6 steals.
“I’ve always been very prideful about taking care of the ball,” Brown said. “I hold myself accountable, and it’s about never getting too high or too low, playing solid and making the right plays.”
Javon Jackson scored 2 wide-open three-point shots that earned everyone in attendance free ice cream and capped a 15-2 scoring run in the second half.
The game ended with a final score of 84-53 marking the fifth game where the Aggies have won by at least 20 points.
“I’m proud of our guys, I tell them any time they step on the court the goal is to win, and that’s what they did,” Sprinkle said. “There’s a lot to clean up. We need to clean up our ball-screen defense.”
USU takes on Santa Clara on Dec. 13 at 8:00 p.m. at the Leavy Center.